Sultan Solitaire

What is Sultan Solitaire?

Sultan is a classic two-deck patience game (also known as Emperor of Germany) in which a single King of Hearts — the Sultan — occupies the center of a 3×3 foundation grid and cannot be built on. The surrounding eight positions are pre-dealt with the remaining seven Kings and one Ace of Hearts, each of which must be built up by suit all the way to a Queen.

The goal is to surround the Sultan with Queens. That thematic constraint is what gives the game its name and its distinctive layout: when you win, the Sultan King of Hearts stands in the center ringed by eight Queens.

Full rules

Two standard 52-card decks (104 cards total) are used. Nine cards are laid out in a 3×3 grid as the foundations: both Kings of Diamonds, both Kings of Spades, both Kings of Clubs, both Kings of Hearts, and one Ace of Hearts. The center King of Hearts is the Sultan and is never built on. Eight cards are then dealt face-up as the divan (reserve).

The seven non-Sultan King foundations build by suit in the sequence K → A → 2 → 3 → … → Q. The Ace of Hearts foundation builds A → 2 → 3 → … → Q. All eight surrounding foundations end with a Queen on top. Cards come from the waste pile (top card only) or from the divan (any of the eight face-up cards). When a divan card is moved, its slot is immediately refilled from the top of the stock.

Draw from stock one card at a time. The waste pile may be recycled back to stock up to two times, giving three total passes through the deck. You win when all 8 surrounding foundations show a Queen on top — the Sultan surrounded by his court.

Strategy tips

Because each divan slot refills from stock when played, moving a divan card is often better than drawing from stock — you get a foundation card and see a new card for free. Prioritize divan plays over stock draws when both options are available.

Track which ranks are blocking which foundations. With two copies of every card, you need specific cards in a specific order. If both copies of a needed card are buried in the waste after a full pass, your position becomes very difficult. Early in the game, try to build the foundations evenly across all suits rather than racing one suit to its Queen while others stall.

The A♥ foundation is a special case: it starts on an Ace rather than a King, so it needs different cards than the K♥ foundation in position 8. Both heart foundations compete for the same heart cards from the two decks — keep that in mind when deciding which 2♥, 3♥, etc. to send where.

Sultan vs. other two-deck games

Sultan shares the two-deck format with games like Windmill, Crescent, and American Toad, but its mechanical structure is distinctive. Windmill has a central growing foundation and four descending corner foundations. Crescent uses eight tableau fans with same-suit wraparound building. Sultan, by contrast, has no tableau at all — it is a pure foundation-building game with a divan reserve and stock/waste cycle.

This makes Sultan one of the more luck-dependent two-deck games: the order cards appear in the waste matters enormously, and the three passes through the deck are rarely more than enough. Win rates hover around 10–20% with careful play.

Two-deck patience game family

• Windmill — center foundation plus four corner foundations, two-deck, no tableau
• Crescent — 16 fan tableau piles, eight foundations, wraparound same-suit building
• American Toad — Canfield variant using two decks with a large reserve
• Aces and Kings — two-deck with ascending and descending foundations
• Backbone — two-deck with 13 tableau columns and a vertical backbone reserve

Reference and related guides

• Sultan strategy guide
• Windmill strategy guide
• All solitaire variants
• Solitaire glossary